Daily review 22/08/2022

Written By: - Date published: 5:30 pm, August 22nd, 2022 - 17 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

17 comments on “Daily review 22/08/2022 ”

  1. Muttonbird 1

    For a non-trivial number of New Zealanders, the change in our media has been abrupt and destabilising. They remember a time when Al Nisbet’s cartoons were published in our daily newspapers, and it was routine for talkback hosts to describe Māori children as feral. This group, which viewed that as all being in the rough and tumble of life, feels suddenly estranged from society.

    New Zealand is moving on and some people, an ever-shrinking group, don't like it.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300667750/meet-the-secretive-rich-lister-bankrolling-sean-plunkets-the-platform

  2. Kat 2

    Neale Jones almost made Kathryn Ryan choke on her coffee this morning when he said the media had a lot to answer for not doing any pre in-depth research in the Sharma saga….

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018854772/political-commentators-neale-jones-and-tim-hurdle

    • Made me choke on my post-dinner glass of wine, too – reading your comment!

      And then listening to Jones & Ryan battling over it. 10.37 on the link above, for those who want to listen along at home.

    • Anne 2.2

      Thanks Kat that was interesting. I gave up listening to RNZ's Monday political spot because Matthew Hooten constantly shouted down his opponents. He turned each session into a bun-fight. But these are two very good commentators from the Left and the Right so will start listening again.

      Another good RNZ piece today is the write up of Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson at Monday's Post Cabinet stand-up. I thought their contributions were fair and reasonable especially Ardern's responses to the Gaurav Sharma allegations. Worth a read:

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/473282/jacinda-ardern-grant-robertson-speak-after-cabinet-meeting

  3. Poission 3

    Following further gaslighting from Gazprom (Nordstream down for maintenance for 3 days at end of month) European gas futures rise 10%.

    https://twitter.com/business/status/1561610394883563521?cxt=HHwWgoC9iayY-qsrAAAA

    https://www.theice.com/products/27996665/Dutch-TTF-Gas-Futures/data?marketId=5408202&span=1

    German electricity hits 630e a mwh,as electricity generation becomes uncertain.

  4. Peter 4

    Brian Tamaki has apparently become aware that tomorrow is the 18th anniversary of him protesting against civil unions.

    So in the name of 'freedom and rights' he'll be raving on tomorrow from his hypocritical pedestal.

    We need an ignorant megalomaniac as much as America does.

    • Anne 4.1

      I'm wondering if Sharma might join that protest. It would be more publicity and if he does intend to start a new party, it has the potential to join the" Coalition of Parties" Tamaki has been banging on about.

      It would be fun watching them implode like the last one involving JLR and the anti -everything nutbar whose name I have forgotten.

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 4.1.1

        Anne…that could be very prescient of you : ) And yes, the Implosion.

        Narcissist' battling each other. lol

  5. joe90 5

    Communities in WA and SA have banned cats and an Icelandic town voted to put cats under curfew and ban outdoor cats entirely from 2025. Why can't we?

    A Polish scientific institute has categorized domestic cats as an "invasive alien species."

    The Polish Academy of Sciences has defined the house cat (felis catus) as "alien" as it was domesticated in the Middle East and has deemed cats as "invasive" due to the "negative influence of domestic cats on native biodiversity," they explained in a statement.

    The Academy has a long list of animals they deem an "invasive alien species," including Japanese knotweed, raccoons, clearwing moths, and mandarin ducks.

    They state that such species pose "an unpredictable risk to local wildlife," citing a study showing that cats in Poland kill and eat 48.1 and 583.4 million mammals, respectively, and 8.9 and 135.7 million birds yearly.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/cats-are-invasive-alien-species-says-polish-academy-of-sciences-2022-7

    • Humans are also an invasive alien species (originating in Africa).
      No doubt the Polish Academy of Sciences is going to put a curfew on them, too.

      [I can't actually read Polish, so was unable to check on your link]

      Perhaps you could reach out to Gareth 'Cat-Ban' Morgan and see how his campaign went.

      BTW, I can't quite follow the statistics in your quote – it seems to be saying that they eat 12+ times as many mammals as they kill?

    • Visubversa 5.2

      A lot of those mammals are rats and mice. In the plague years in Europe various religious fanatics decided that cats were to blame and killed hundreds of them. Of course as the plague bacillus is carried by fleas that live mainly on rodents, killing the cats made things worse.

      • joe90 5.2.1

        The black death spread by vector parasites partial to humans, not rats.

        Abstract

        Plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, can spread through human populations by multiple transmission pathways. Today, most human plague cases are bubonic, caused by spillover of infected fleas from rodent epizootics, or pneumonic, caused by inhalation of infectious droplets. However, little is known about the historical spread of plague in Europe during the Second Pandemic (14–19th centuries), including the Black Death, which led to high mortality and recurrent epidemics for hundreds of years. Several studies have suggested that human ectoparasite vectors, such as human fleas (Pulex irritans) or body lice (Pediculus humanus humanus), caused the rapidly spreading epidemics. Here, we describe a compartmental model for plague transmission by a human ectoparasite vector. Using Bayesian inference, we found that this model fits mortality curves from nine outbreaks in Europe better than models for pneumonic or rodent transmission. Our results support that human ectoparasites were primary vectors for plague during the Second Pandemic, including the Black Death (1346–1353), ultimately challenging the assumption that plague in Europe was predominantly spread by rats.

        https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1715640115

  6. Shanreagh 6

    I do not have a good feeling about tomorrow.

    I doubt that Tamaki will be able to control the hotheads who will be there, intent on reliving the occupation and/or its violent ending. They will need a substantial number of police on the ground and shadowing them from where-ever they are hiding.

    Having seen a couple of the motley types of motorhomes, complete with scribbles and flags around Wellington over the weekend I feel they will be staking out camping places tonight. I guess closing off possible assembly or camping places was the reason that several yards/foyers, short-cuts around and between buildings in the long blocks between Jervois Quay/Customhouse Quay and Victoria St were blocked off (albeit with tape) late this afternoon when I was in town.

    I am in two minds as to whether to go to the counter-protest, not frightened but not wanting to be part of anything involving unpredictable, weirdo idiots from Tamaki's crew. Though the counter protest says that it will have the 'better dance moves' and I can believe that after seeing them in action against the horrid Derek in Dunedin, they are dealing with people who have been proven violent by nature, creed and past practice during the Parliament occupation.

    https://iso.org.nz/2022/07/05/confrontation-in-dunedin-anti-fascists-v-right-wing-coalition/

  7. Patricia Bremner 7

    Many think as you expressed, wanting to support the Left, & Jacina who will be villified.

  8. Fireblade 8

    R.I.P. Margaret Urlich. I will always remember you and your music.